Accidental Blogger

Coulter’s Crib Sheet (… It’s Long!)

July 6, 2006

Those who had a hard time telling Ann Coulter and Adolph Hitler apart, now will know the reason why. Ann Coulter, the foul mouthed right wing diva may not be liberal in her politics but she is not above liberally lifting material for her books and columns from other published sources. So reports the New York Post. Perhaps she pilfered from Der Führer too.

"Conservative scribe Ann Coulter cribbed liberally in her latest book, "Godless," according to a plagiarism expert.

John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism-recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls "textbook plagiarism" in the leggy blond pundit’s "Godless: the Church of Liberalism" after he ran the book’s text through the company’s digital iThenticate program.

He also says he discovered verbatim lifts in Coulter’s weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers, including the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle.

Barrie, CEO of iParadigms, told The Post that one 25-word passage from the "Godless" chapter titled "The Holiest Sacrament: Abortion" appears to have been lifted nearly word for word from Planned Parenthood literature published at least 18 months before Coulter’s 281-page book was released.

A separate, 24-word string from the chapter "The Creation Myth" appeared about a year earlier in the San Francisco Chronicle with just one word change – "stacked" was changed to "piled."

Another 33-word passage that appears five pages into "Godless" allegedly comes from a 1999 article in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald."

Sources from which Coulter may have lifted material for her syndicated columns include the L.A Times and the Heritage Foundation among others. The NY Post report moved Universal Press Syndicate which syndicates Coulter’s columns to seek a copy of Barrie’s report. Fearing exposure, Coulter has lashed out at the New York Post in her characteristic vicious manner. It is interesting to note however, that there is no denial contained in the diatribe.

"….Today, the latest installment of Coulter’s column takes aim at the New York Post, although her July 5 piece doesn’t mention the Post’s July 2 plagiarism story.

Coulter wrote: "Once considered a legitimate daily, the Post has been reduced to tabloid status best known for Page Six’s breathless accounts of Paris Hilton’s latest ruttings, and headlines like ‘Vampire Teen — H.S. Girl Is Out for Blood.’ How crappy a newspaper is the Post? Let me put it this way: It’s New York’s second-crappiest paper."

She added: "Maybe the Post’s constant harassment of me is an attempt to shake me down for protection money like they did with billionaire businessman Ron Burkle. I have sold a LOT of books — more books, come to think of it, than any writers at the New York Post."

Keep a lid on your operatic outrage, Ms Coulter. Or see Rush Limbaugh’s doctor for a prescription.
Carnival of the Liberals # 16

July 5, 2006

The Carnival of the Liberals # 16, the Independence Day edition is up at the Uncredible Halqq. Please visit to get the sane perspective on things in a mad, mad world.
“The fastest way to send money — worldwide.” Not if your name is Mohammed.

July 5, 2006

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Western Union routinely refuses or delays money transfers based on recipients’ names – especially when the name is Mohammed or Ahmed. (via Sepia Mutiny) Western Union’s action is in accordance with the US Treasury Department’s attempt to monitor and restrict cash flow to terrorist organizations.

"Money transfer agencies like Western Union have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed, company officials said.

In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending US$120 to a friend at home this month because the recipient’s name was Mohammed.

"Western Union told me that if I send money to Sahir Mohammed, the money will be blocked because of his name," said 36-year-old Abdul Rahman Maruthayil, who later sent the money through UAE Exchange, a Dubai-based money transfer service.

In a similar case, Pakistani Qadir Khan said Western Union blocked his attempt this month to wire money to his brother, Mohammed, for a cataract operation.

"Every Mohammed is a terrorist now?" Khan asked.

Western Union Financial Services, Inc., an American company based in Colorado, said its clerks simply are following US Treasury Department guidelines that aim to scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. Most of the flagged transactions are delayed a few hours. Some are blocked entirely.

In many cases, would-be customers like Maruthayil simply find another way to send the funds – often through informal exchanges with less stringent monitoring.

But critics of the program say it is far too broad. The number of people inconvenienced in the Emirates alone, which closely cooperates with US counter-terror operations, is thought to be significant. One Western Union clerk said about 300 money transfers from a single Dubai franchise were blocked or delayed each day – none of which ever turned up a terrorist link.

In Washington, US Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said foreign banks have used the department’s list of terrorist names to freeze US$150 million in assets since it was released after Sept. 11. Millerwise didn’t know the value of money transfers blocked using the list, but she said frustrations endured by those with certain names were regrettable but necessary.

"We have an obligation to do all we can to keep money out of the hands of terrorists," Millerwise said….

"Mohammed and Ahmed have become problematic names because they are so common on the list of terrorists," said Nixon Baby, who runs a Western Union franchise in Bur Dubai, a neighborhood packed with South Asian businesses. "These are regulations that Western Union is required to obey. We do not have any control."
“Oh, say, CAN’T you see..”

July 4, 2006

A flag story before the 4th of July, 2006 is history.

RICHARDSON, Texas — Imagine singing "Oh, say, can you see" to a flag you can’t see. That’s what graduate students at the University of Texas at Dallas had in mind when they created the likeness of an American flag so small it would take more than 10 to span the width of a human hair.

While the work of electrical engineering students Jang-Bae Jeon and Carlo Foresca has so far been rejected by the Guinness Book of World Records, they hope the process will lead to advances in nanotechnology, a world of creations viewed only through microscopes.

"Most of this nanotechnology is two-dimensional," said Moon Kim, the engineering professor who oversaw the project. "This gives the opportunity to build three-dimensional stuff."

The image of the flag _ complete with all 50 stars and 13 stripes _ is 7 microns tall, compared to the 100-micron width of a human hair. It was transferred onto a silicon wafer using a machine that follows the shape of any bitmap image file. The flag and its pole were cut using an ion beam _ a microscopic version of a laser _ and lifted to a standing position by a nano manipulator.

Jeon and Foresca spent months working on the U.S. flag and a Texas flag even smaller _ 4 microns. They used equipment from Zyvex, a nanotechnology company based in Richardson.

"We were trying to show what capabilities our machine had," Foresca said.

And Kim said they would probably try Guinness again sometime.

"They told us they don’t have a method to actually see the flag," Jeon said."
Tokyo Rose: A Siren or A Scapegoat?

July 4, 2006

Today we celebrate the idea that is the United States of America – democratic, free and one would hope, fair. It is also an annual reminder of our fundamental values and patriotic spirit, an emotion which when taken to thoughtless extremes can leave in its wake hapless and helpless victims. When the nation’s stewardship is in the hands of a scoundrelly government such as the Bush administration, it is especially critical to know the distinction between wishing your country well and cynical and exploitative jingoism. On this day when the US flag will be flying everywhere, let’s also not forget that burning the flag as an expression of dissent against a corrupt government’s misdeeds is actually more in line with our democratic values than wrapping ourselves in it as a way of denying others their due rights and freedoms. A happy Fourth of July to all.

"They branded her Tokyo Rose, but Iva Toguri was no traitor. However, when she turns 90 today — the Fourth of July — that will give her little comfort. Because to many Americans, Toguri was Tokyo Rose — the sultry siren whose broadcasts demoralized GIs fighting in the Pacific during World War II.

Never mind that President Gerald Ford pardoned Toguri after her treason trial was revealed to be a sham. The shame and stigma still dog Toguri’s steps. So she will mark her birthday quietly and far from prying eyes.

"Her entire life was destroyed by a miscarriage of justice, and you couldn’t be more American than she was," said Ron Yates, a former Chicago Tribune reporter whose stories about Toguri’s rigged trial helped win her the pardon. Toguri, who declined to be interviewed, lives in Chicago. Born Ikuko Toguri in Los Angeles to Japanese immigrant parents, Toguri was a Girl Scout, a Methodist, a Republican.

Months before Pearl Harbor, Toguri traveled to Japan to visit a sick aunt. When the war broke out, she was stranded. Toguri resisted Japanese pressure to renounce her U.S. citizenship. But desperate for money, she worked on a propaganda radio show manned by Allied prisoners. Toguri did comedy skits and introduced newscasts. And she used some of her earnings to feed starving POWs and help support Felipe D’Aquino, her husband, a Portuguese national of Japanese descent.

After Japan surrendered, two reporters offered a $250 reward for the identity of Tokyo Rose — the name given by U.S. forces to several different English-speaking female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. Toguri was arrested and jailed for a year. She was released after the FBI found no evidence she aided the Japanese. But columnist Walter Winchell led a crusade to have her rearrested and tried.

Toguri was convicted of treason and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Two former colleagues testified that she had made propaganda broadcasts. She served six years. Yates tracked down her accusers, who admitted they lied. That led to a 60 Minutes report that persuaded Ford to restore Toguri’s citizenship."

Catastrophes Need A Mustache

July 3, 2006

In the Indian epic Mahabharat (ought to be required reading for all warmongers), Yudhisthir, the protagonist known for his uncommon wisdom and integrity was asked to name the most confounding conundrum of human existence. He replied that it was the fact that humans, aware of their eventual, unavoidable death, spend their entire lives devising ways to stay alive.

Well, I guess it is true that we do our best to avert danger, disease and calamity. We fasten our seat belts, watch our diet, go to the doctor when sick. When our life, wealth or way of life is threatened, we set our burglar alarms, call the police or go to war. When the foundations of our moral and religious values are shaken we write letters to the editor or push lawmakers to change the constitution. But we react with greatest alacrity when danger has a human face even if the precautions we take are for the most part useless or of little effect.

We are not so diligent or sagacious when it comes to slow and creeping perils whose progress is not easily recorded by our brain. And we are particularly apathetic to slowly advancing natural catastrophes which we see as an act of god rather than man. Which is why the Bush administration plays so successfully on our fears of Islamic terrorism for repeated polical gain at the polls but gets away with its utterly callous attitude towards global warming.

After all, we have put a bearded, turbaned, Muslim face on global terrorism which we hope to recognize on the subway and at airports but global warming is something nebulous in the future whose effects don’t capture our imagination with the same spectacular urgency as a pair of speeding and tilting airplanes flying into tall towers.

If Only Gay Sex Caused Global Warming
Why we’re more scared of gay marriage and terrorism than a much deadlier threat.

by Daniel Gilbert

No one seems to care about the upcoming attack on the World Trade Center site. Why? Because it won’t involve villains with box cutters. Instead, it will involve melting ice sheets that swell the oceans and turn that particular block of lower Manhattan into an aquarium… And yet our government will spend billions of dollars this year to prevent global terrorism and … well, essentially nothing to prevent global warming.

Why are we less worried about the more likely disaster? Because the human brain evolved to respond to threats that have four features — features that terrorism has and that global warming lacks.

First, global warming lacks a mustache. No, really. We are social mammals whose brains are highly specialized for thinking about others. Understanding what others are up to — what they know and want, what they are doing and planning — has been so crucial to the survival of our species that our brains have developed an obsession with all things human. We think about people and their intentions; talk about them; look for and remember them.

If two airplanes had been hit by lightning and crashed into a New York skyscraper, few of us would be able to name the date on which it happened. Global warming isn’t trying to kill us, and that’s a shame. If climate change had been visited on us by a brutal dictator or an evil empire, the war on warming would be this nation’s top priority.

The second reason why global warming doesn’t put our brains on orange alert is that it doesn’t violate our moral sensibilities. It doesn’t cause our blood to boil (at least not figuratively) because it doesn’t force us to entertain thoughts that we find indecent, impious or repulsive. When people feel insulted or disgusted, they generally do something about it, such as whacking each other over the head, or voting. Moral emotions are the brain’s call to action.

And so we are outraged about every breach of protocol except Kyoto… The fact is that if climate change were caused by gay sex, or by the practice of eating kittens, millions of protesters would be massing in the streets.

The third reason why global warming doesn’t trigger our concern is that we see it as a threat to our futures — not our afternoons. Like all animals, people are quick to respond to clear and present danger, which is why it takes us just a few milliseconds to duck when a wayward baseball comes speeding toward our eyes.

There is a fourth reason why we just can’t seem to get worked up about global warming. The human brain is exquisitely sensitive to changes in light, sound, temperature, pressure, size, weight and just about everything else. But if the rate of change is slow enough, the change will go undetected.

The human brain is a remarkable device that was designed to rise to special occasions. We are the progeny of people who hunted and gathered, whose lives were brief and whose greatest threat was a man with a stick. When terrorists attack, we respond with crushing force and firm resolve, just as our ancestors would have. Global warming is a deadly threat precisely because it fails to trip the brain’s alarm, leaving us soundly asleep in a burning bed.

Daniel Gilbert is a professor of psychology at Harvard University and the author of "Stumbling on Happiness," published in May by Knopf.

World Cup Soccer Prediction (Revised)

July 1, 2006

So, it will be an all European final in the 2006 World Cup Soccer. That much is decided. The two great Latin American hopes, Argentina and Brazil were eliminated in the quarter finals by Germany and France respectively. The young and scrappy Portuguese team did away with England. Italy took care of Ukraine. Of the four teams reaching the semis, only Germany figured on my initial list of possible finalists. The home team advantage still favors Germany as the eventual winner. But there is another more dependable rule of predicting a champion in the WCS and that is "whoever beats Brazil, wins." Going by that rule, I am predicting that the Jules Rimet Cup goes to France in 2006.
East, West, Math and Old age

June 30, 2006

Two stories related to brain function. One did not come as much of a surprise – the other did.

The first one claims that how you solve math problems may depend on the language you speak. I wonder what Thomas Friedman will make of these findings. He will probably clamor for making Mandarin compulsory in America, starting at age 3!

"Things add up differently for native English speakers compared with people who learned Chinese as a first language. Simple arithmetic was easily done by both groups, but they used different parts of the brain, a new study shows.

Researchers used brain imaging to see which parts of the brain were active while people did simple addition problems, such as 3 plus 4 equals 7. All participants were working with Arabic numerals which are used in both cultures.

Both groups engaged a portion of the brain called the inferior parietal cortex, which is involved in quantity representation and reading. But native English speakers also showed activity in a language processing area of the brain, while native Chinese speakers used a brain region involved in the processing of visual information, according to the report in Tuesday’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The difference "may mean that Chinese speakers perform problems in a different manner than do English speakers," said lead author Yiyuan Tang of Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China.

"In part that might represent the difference in language. It could be that the difference in language encourages different styles of computation and this may be enhanced by different methods of learning to deal with numbers," Tang said in an interview via e-mail. "We believe language plays a role in the calculation," Tang said. But Tang added that cultural factors may also play a part, such as math learning strategies and school training…..

Richard E. Nisbett, co-director of the Culture and Cognition Program at the University of Michigan, said "the work is important because it tells us something about the particular pathways in the brain that underlie some of the differences between Asians and Westerners in thought patterns."

Nisbett last year reported on differences in the way Asians and North Americans view pictures. He tracked eye movements and determined that, when shown a photograph, North American students of European background paid more attention to the object in the foreground of a scene, while students from China spent more time studying the background and taking in the whole scene.

"They literally are seeing the world differently," he said."

The second finding describes the biological basis for something we are more or less familiar with. The reason that older people seem to mellow with age, doesn’t just have to do with their decreasing physical vigor to fight a good fight. The human brain apparently finds a way to focus more on positive thoughts as we age.

With maturity, emotional activity appears to shift to the medial prefrontal cortex the part of the brain associated with conscious thought. Younger people on the other hand, feel emotions mostly in the amygdala, the area also associated with fear responses. Experience and a longer memory help put the ups and downs of life in proper logical perspective for the grown ups. Hmm… did they study the brain patterns of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld? I bet they would be all amygdala!

"Given all the bad news that science has delivered about brain cells withering and memory waning as the years mount, older people have a right to be cranky. But, instead, the over-50 crowd handles life’s rotten realities and finds life’s bright side more effectively than whippersnappers do. In no small part, that’s because the aging brain makes critical emotional adjustments, a new study indicates.

Advancing age heralds a growth in emotional stability accompanied by a neural transition to increased control over negative emotions and greater accessibility of positive emotions, according to a team led by neuroscientist Leanne M. Williams of Westmead (Australia) Hospital. A brain area needed for conscious thought, the medial prefrontal cortex, primarily influences these emotional reactions in older adults, Williams and her colleagues say.

In contrast, people under age 50 experience negative emotions more easily than they do positive ones. These younger adults’ emotion-related activity centers on the amygdala, a brain structure previously implicated in automatic fear responses.

This gradual reorganization of the brain’s emotion system may result from older folk responding to accumulating personal experiences by increasingly looking for meaning in life, the researchers propose in the June 14 Journal of Neuroscience.

Evidence that emotional functions improve in older brains "indicates that our ability to register the significance of information is preserved, and even enhanced, as we age," Williams says. Older people may benefit from associating information they need to remember with personally significant matters, such as a favorite tune, he adds."
The Wounded and the Forgiven

June 29, 2006

On ABC’s World News Tonight, I saw a clip of George W. Bush jogging on the White House grounds with a young soldier. It was an amazing and heartbreaking sight. Christian Bagge, a 23 year old Iraq war veteran is a double amputee who lost both his legs to a road side explosion near Kirkuk. Bagge appears to have no rancor at the prospect of facing the future with his tremendous handicap. I wonder if politicians like Bush, their outwardly bonhomie and sympathetic pep talk notwithstanding, have the imagination or the empathy to see themselves in the shoes (literally) of young men and women like Bagge. I suspect not. (note that Bush first met Bagge at the same place, same time – last Christmas break at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.)

Note: Watch the video here.
You Say Cut ‘N’ Run, We Say ‘Strategery’

June 28, 2006

Lying, misleading, misrepresenting, swiftboating – the right wing Republicans know all the fine arts of dirty politics. It is now clear that they are also adept at heisting, pilfering and plagiarizing. After weeks and months of calling Murtha, Kerry and other Democrats who have suggested a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq cowardly cut and run artists, the Republicans are planning for exactly that – a gradual troop withdrawal from Iraq. Except this time it is called shrewd military strategy. Are the Dems in an uproar? If they are, I haven’t heard much. Instead what I am hearing is the steady hum of tried and tested right wing wedge issues like flag burning and gay marriage. Just in time for the run up to November’s elections. The inimitable Molly Ivins hits the nail squarely on its head.

"And then along comes Cut’n’Run Casey. We spend all last week listening to cut’n’run Democrats talking about their cut’n’run strategy for Iraq, and the only issue is whether they want to cut’n’run by the end of this year or to cut’n’run by the end of next year, and oh, by the way, did I mention that Republicans had been choreographed to refer to the Democrats’ plans as cut’n’run?

As Vice President Dick ("Last Throes") Cheney said Thursday, redeployment of our troops would be “the worst possible thing we could do. … No matter how you carve it—you can call it anything you want—but basically it is packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don’t have the stomach for this fight.”

Then right in the middle of Cut’n’Run Week, the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., held a classified briefing at the Pentagon and revealed his plan to reduce the 14 combat brigades now in Iraq to five or six. And here’s the best part: Rather than wait till the end of this year or, heaven forefend, next year, Casey wants to start moving those troops out in September, just before whatever it is that happens in early November. They don’t call him George W. Jr. for nothing.

One has to admit, the party never ends with the Bush administration. The only question about Cut’n’Run Week is whether they meant to punctuate a weeklong festival of referring to Democrats as the party of “retreat” and “the white flag” with this rather abrupt announcement of their own cut’n’run program. Was it an error of timing?

I say no. I say Karl Rove doesn’t make timing mistakes. This administration thoroughly believes the media and the people have a collective recollection of no more than one day. Five days of cut’n’run, one day off and BAM, you get your own cut’n’run plan out there…. "
The Money Tree

June 27, 2006

(click for a closer view)

The heavy rain and flooding that have inundated the mid-Atlantic states for the last few days have caused wide spread damage to private and public property as well as to trees. Among the many trees which broke and toppled was an old elm tree that stood on the front lawn of the White House. No one knows how old the elm was but it will live on in history as long as we use US $20 bills with the current design. That tree on the right side of the White House that you see on the back of your twenty dollar note, is the one that broke.
Oh Brother!

June 27, 2006

Scientists are going to report in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that men’s chances of being gay may be influenced by birth order and the gender of the preceding siblings. Apparently, the prenatal conditions in the mother’s womb after she has given birth to multiple sons, increases a younger son’s chances of being gay. So, men with older brothers (the more the number of brothers, the greater the likelihood) are more likely to have homosexual orientation than men in the general population. It is not the social influence of having older brothers either. Older half brothers born of different mothers or older adoptive brothers, do not appear to affect the sexuality of a younger brother. Neither does living away from blood brothers. The statistical finding relates specifically to the number of older brothers, born of the same mother and is therefore thought to point to a (at least one) biological basis for homosexuality.

"The number of biological older brothers a boy’s mother has carried–whether they live with him in the same household or not–affects his chances of being gay. The findings, reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by Anthony Bogaert of Brock University, lend credence to the theory that it’s not the social or rearing factors that influence a man’s sexual orientation, but rather prenatal mechanisms that begin in the womb.

The idea that prenatal mechanisms may influence sexual orientation has been around for a couple of decades. In 1996, Bogaert along with colleague Ray Blanchard correlated sexual orientation in men with the number of older brothers, but it wasn’t clear if that influence was occurring because the boys shared the same household or because they had shared the same womb.

He reasoned that if the social or rearing factor theories were correct, he would expect to see certain things. First, it wouldn’t matter whether a gay man’s older brothers had been biologically related or not, the social influence would be there. Second, the amount of time the young boy lived with his older brothers, biological or not, should affect his sexual orientation. Third, if the boy did not live with older brothers, then the numbers should not impact his sexual preference.

Bogaert found the opposite to be true. First, he found that only the number of biological older brothers predicted sexual orientation in men–even when the number of non-biological older brothers was significantly higher. Second, his study showed that the amount of time reared with older brothers–either related or not–did not predict a young boy’s becoming homosexual. And surprisingly, Bogaert discovered that even if a young man did not grow up in the same house as his older brothers, the fact that he had older biological brothers increased his odds of being gay. .."
Friendless In The Promised Land

June 26, 2006

Aside from my family, what I miss most about India as an adult living in the US, are my friends from childhood and college days. I have often wondered how much of that nostalgia for the youthful friendships pertains to the joyous recall of a time when I myself was young, brave and eagerly looking forward to an unknown future and how much is for the friends themselves. There have been occasions when I have bumped into friends from that era. Some meetings were awkward and self conscious. After a gap of many years it was difficult to find common ground. At other times I would meet a long lost friend and we would enthusiastically pick up from where we’d left off – years ago. What contributes to the difference in the quality of the reunions?

Ethan Leib at Prawfs Blawg is currently in the process of writing an article on "friendship." Off and on, he has posed questions regarding the nature of friendship. For example, is friendship a "side by side" relationship as opposed to the "face to face" nature of a romantic one? I tend to think so. With friends we don’t so much as look at each other but rather, at the world – together. Our world views are often what most accurately and predictably define our friendships. Recently, Ethan asked if true friendships survive better in groups or one on one. Or can it be that we fare better in groups when young but drift into more intimate dyads as we age? I would ask an additional question: is it different for men and women? Interesting questions of philosophy, psychology and anthropology. I look forward to Ethan’s article and hope to share it with readers when it is published.

Last week I found the following article in the Houston Chronicle. It has some interesting and startling data about the state of friendship in America. Also, can friendship be defined in the old fashioned way? Does friendship on the internet count? Via email, blogs and other web based connections?

"WASHINGTON – Americans, who shocked pollsters in 1985 when they said they had only three close friends, today say they have just two. And the number who say they’ve no one to discuss important matters with has doubled to 1 in 4, according to a nationwide survey to be released today. It found that men and women of every race, age and education level reported fewer intimate friends than the same survey turned up in 1985.

Their remaining confidants were more likely to be members of their nuclear family than in 1985, according to the study, but intimacy within families was down, too. The findings are reported in the June issue of the American Sociological Review.

Weakening bonds of friendship, which other studies affirm, have far-reaching effects. Among them: fewer people to turn to for help in crises such as Hurricane Katrina, fewer watchdogs to deter neighborhood crime, fewer visitors for hospital patients and fewer participants in community groups. The decline, which was greatest in estimates of the number of friends outside the family, also puts added pressure on spouses, families and counselors.

One explanation for friendship’s decline is that adults are working longer hours and socializing less. That includes women who, when they were homemakers, tended to have strong community networks. In addition, commutes are longer, and television viewing and computer use are up. Another factor, study co-author Lynn Smith-Lovin, a sociologist at Duke University in Durham, N.Csaid, may have been confusion among some of those polled on how to count e-mail friendships.

She speculated that social isolation may have made Hurricane Katrina worse. "The people we saw sitting on roofs after Katrina hit were probably people without close ties to someone with a car to get them out," she said…..

Robert Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone, the 2000 best-seller on declining American civic life, said people pay a price when bonds of friendship weaken. "Communities that have tighter social networks have lower crime and lower mortality and less corruption and more effective government and less tax evasion," he said."

The above definitions of friendship appear to be mostly "need" related – support, help, dependability etc. And no doubt we seek and expect emotional and sometimes, material support from our friends. But what about fun, good natured competition and being comfortable with each other as the basis for enduring friendships? How many of us find that worthwhile? The reasons why I seek friends have changed over the years. But I still look for an element of innocent and absurd fun with my friends. While I have many friends who are trustworthy, dependable, kind and generous, the ones whose company I most enjoy are those with whom an informal, unstructured camaraderie is possible. With whom a serious conversation can often dissolve into hysterical laughter without warning. My husband thinks I am childish in that respect – to seek fun in adult friendships.

I don’t think that it is childish – perhaps childlike. At some level, I believe that "friendship" is primarily a childhood aptitude. Unless adults can recapture the essence of the youthful, unencumbered, carefree, "side by side" relationship, adult relationships do not turn into close friendships. Throughout my life, in every place I have lived, I have gravitated towards groups of women whom I meet through leisure activities and who have nothing to do with my profession, my husband or my children. We find common ground based on shared interests, world views and a lack of material and emotional expectations from each other. In such company, I find that my friends and I revert to our girlish natures. Although we are interested in each other, we rarely talk about money or about our intimate family details unless there is a crisis. We often call upon each other for help (and get it) but that is not the foundation of the relationship. Although a "friend in need" is the much touted ideal, "a friend in laughter" is equally important. In a distressful situation, I believe that I can call upon a casual acquaintance or even a complete stranger and nine out of ten times, I will receive their help. It is the joyous occasions – the news of personal triumphs, humorous situations or a stroke of good luck that I cannot share with just anybody. For that one needs family and friends of good will. Conversations, which in childhood used to beging with "Want to play?" now begin with "What’s up?" and "How about lunch?" with close adult friends. And those are the friends with whom even after years of absence, you can pick up the thread of friendship without much effort.

Note: Friends don’t just DO things for you. They can make YOU do amazing things.
Who Said It?

June 25, 2006

Here is a quiz that will test your familiarity with fascist-speak. Don’t worry if you can not tell the difference between Ann Coulter and Adolph Hitler. The distinction is only temporal, not of essence. (via Neural Gourmet)
How Classy!

June 23, 2006

Conservative politicians and their media mouthpieces are pastmasters at bullying, threatening and spreading disinformation in order to stay in power. We have seen countless evidence of that in the last five years. Some of them have also perfected the art of obscene personal attacks against political opponents. These attacks often take the form of ridiculing their targets’ physical attributes – especially when those targets are female. After Bill Clinton was elected president, mud slinging against the two adult Clintons did not satisfy the blood lust of the frustrated Republicans. Rush Limbaugh, a grown man, found it appropriate to call Chelsea Clinton who at that time was thirteen years old, "the White House dog". Recently, Ann Coulter labelled some of the 9/11 widows who had criticized Bush, witches and harpies. She also urged them …" Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they’d better hurry up and appear in Playboy…" This was of course in addition to implying that they were enjoying their husbands’ deaths. It came as no surprise to me therefore that another Republican recently took vicious aim at Helen Thomas, the matriarch of the White House correspondents’ pool. And why would a man make fun of an eighty five year old woman? Because Thomas has bravely and relentlessly questioned the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.

"DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa congressman apologized Wednesday for disparaging comments he made last week at the state Republican convention about a veteran White House correspondent.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was discussing the June 7 death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Saturday when he mentioned 85-year-old Helen Thomas, who has covered the White House for nearly 50 years and is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers.

"There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell he’s at," King said about al-Zarqawi, in a recording transcribed by Radio Iowa. "And if there are, they probably all look like Helen Thomas."

Spokeswoman Summer Johnson said in an e-mail Wednesday that King has apologized to Thomas.

The two-term congressman is running for re-election. Joyce Schulte, King’s Democratic opponent in November, said the remarks were uncivil.

Thomas did not immediately return calls seeking comment."

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